Jack & Jill Politics

Wow, this is the way government is supposed to work. Like where your tax dollars mean that you get something back when you need it. Here’s whassup in terms of using Obama’s stimulus package to help people have better homes, get better jobs in an emerging industry and make our nation (and our gubment) more energy-efficient. Dy-no-mite. From Daily Kos:

Some $4 billion from President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan that was budgeted to renovate public housing will be spent to create so-called “green jobs” by making the dwellings more energy efficient.

Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan was making the announcement Tuesday in Denver at a meeting of Obama’s Middle Class Task Force.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, another task force member, also will announce that $500 million from the stimulus is becoming available to train workers for these jobs. That sum includes $50 million for communities battered by job losses and restructuring in the auto industry.

Both Donovan and Solis also were announcing that their departments are working together to make it easier for public housing residents to find training programs or a green job. …

These jobs, broadly defined as related to helping the environment, pay up to 20 percent more than other jobs, are more likely to be union jobs and are more likely to be held by men, less so by minorities and people who live in cities, according to a report the task force issued in February. These jobs also are ones that cannot be easily transferred overseas.

Environment News Service reported:

“We defined green jobs broadly as jobs that help to improve the environment in some way,” the task force states in the update. “That includes blue collar workers building out the smart grid to efficiently move the wind power (green, renewable energy) from the mid-west to major urban centers on both coasts. It includes ‘weatherizers’ who can diagnose and repair the energy inefficiencies in your house or business. And it includes the green manufacturers who made those wind turbines or the scientists and lab technicians who developed those renewable energy sources and weatherization materials.”As part of the $500 million announcement, the task force said new partnerships are being created between the Departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Education and Labor that are intended to make it easier for people to find green jobs and connect to the training they need to fill them.